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The Lake Baikal
FROM THE HISTORY OF MASTERING
The first investigator, who left his
followers "The scheme of the Baikal and rivers flowing into it" and information
about the lake's fishes and fur animals inhabiting the coast's taiga, was a
Cossack land discoverer Kurbat Ivanov. In 1643 with a gang of Cossacks and
tradesmen he left Verkholensky fortress and reached the western coasts of the
Baikal and visited the island of Olkhon.
In 1675 a Russian ambassador, statesman, scientist Nikolai Gavrilovich Spafariy
stopped on the shore of the Baikal on his way to China. In his book "A travel of
a Russian ambassador N. Spafariy through Siberia from Tobolsk to Nerchinsk and
the borders of China" he described in details a picturesque view of nature on
the whole way o.f his travel including the Baikal and its surrounding
territories. The ambassadorial activity of N.G. Spafariy presented the richest
objective geographical and other kind of information about Siberia and China,
which had served for a long time as the main source of information about this
region in general both in Russia and in Europe.
Among scientists the first to visit
the Baikal was D.G.Messershmidt, who was invited by Peter I for Russian service.
He made the map of the Baikal and described it. In 1655-1656 protopope Awakum
Petrov took his way through the lake. His curious nature was greatly impressed
and amazed by the lake and its surroundings. In his work "Zhitie" the protopope
gave the first description of the Baikal.
The intensive study of Siberia was
started with organizing of Russian Academy of Science (1725). In 1735-1737
together with the second Kamchatskaya expedition there worked search parties
headed by Gmelin, P.S. Pallasa (1771-1772), I.G.Georgi. Their researches
broadened sufficiently the information about the Baikal. I.G.Georgi gave a
detailed description of his journey round the whole lake, he supposed that the
lake was founded by means of some violent way or may be as a result of great
earthquake when there appeared a huge hole in the Upper Angara river's dip. On
behalf of P.S. Pallas by the expedition navigator A.Pushkarev was the first to
make a topographical picture of the Baikal and its map.
P.S.Pallas also tried to explain the
reason for the appearance of the Baikal's trench. He considered that Baikal's
basin represented a huge crack dividing the mountains and the trench filled with
water. Pallas marked that the coast's mountains preserved the features of the
most sufficient and the recent changes, but at the same time the features of the
ancient periods.
The construction of Krugobaikalskaya
railway served as new stimulus for further study of the lake. A large
hydrographic expedition headed by Ph. K. Drizhenko worked there in 1896-1902,
they composed a detailed atlas of the Baikal's depths which has been used many
sailors till nowadays.
"A RICH LAKE"
In ancient times peoples inhabiting
the shores of lake Baikal named it each in their own way. The Chinese in their
ancient chronicles called it "Tengis", "Tengis-dalay, Buryat-Mongols named it
"Baigal-da-lay"-"a big water basin ".The exact origin of the lake's name hasn't
been established. The most widely spread version says that "Baikal"is rooted
from Turkish word "bai" meaning rich, ans "kul" - lake, i.e. "a rich lake". The
first Russian land discoverers of Siberia used the Evenki name "Lamu". After
coming out of the detachment headed by Kurbat Ivanov to the shore of the lake
Russians began to use the Buryat word "Baigaal". More over they adapted this
name linguistically to their own language, having replaced the typical for
Buryats "g" sound by more traditional for the Russian language "k" and turned
the name into - Baikal.
ONE OF THE SUPERLATIVES...
The Baikal is situated in the center
of Asia, 455 meters above sea level. In the deepest place the Baikal reaches
1620 meters - against the island of Olkhon which is in some 8-10 km from the
shore. As to the lake's depth it can't be compared with any other lake in the
world. Its sizes are also unusual: it's 636 km long, 21-80 km broad, the length
of coastal line is 2000 km, there are 30 big and small islands in the lake. The
total area of the lake is 31500 square km. What concerns the volume of waters
contained in the Baikal, it occupies the second place in the world (23000 cubic
km), it comes right after the Caspian sea. Lake Baikal contains 22 per cent of
the world's water supplies. Its waters are marked by purity and cleanliness. One
can see a white disc 30 cm in diameter on 40 meters depth. The Baikal water
alongside all its horizons is supplied by oxygen, it contains little mineral
salts (less than one tenth of gram per 1 liter). There are about 1859 animal
species and its flora includes 850 plant species. The major part of all
organisms (84 per cent) are endemics, i.e. they live only in the Baikal.
The Baikal is one of the most
ancient lake on the planet, scientists define its age as 25-30 million years.
Most lakes especially of icy origin exist for about 10-15 thousand years, then
they get filled with and disappear for ever. There is no any evidence of the
Baikal's getting old like most world's lakes observed by scientists. Vice versa
the recent observations proved the fact that the Baikal remains an emerging
ocean. This is also proved by the fact that its shores pass each other with 2 cm
per year speed like the continents of Africa and South America.
THE REBELLIOUS DAUGHTER OF THE
BAIKAL
In ancient times the powerful Baikal
was joyful and kind. He loved his only daughter Angara very much. There was no
any other beauty in the world like her. She was brighter than the sky in the
daytime, darker than night in the darkness. Everybody passing by admired her,
praised her. Even migratory birds: ducks, geese, swans, cranes flew low above
the water but rarely sat on it. They said: "How could we darken the clear?" Old
Baikal did his best to protect his daughter. Once when he fell asleep, the
Angara ran away to the Enisei. The father woke up, splashed his waves furiously.
There aroused a fierce storm, the mountains cried, the forests fell down, the
sky got dark from sorrow, the animals ran away the fishes got deep into the
waters to the very bottom, the birds flew away to the Sun. Only the wind howled
and the giant sea splashed furiously. The great Baikal banged against the grey
rock and threw it after his daughter who was running away. The rock fell down
the very throat of the beauty. Blue-eyed Angara cried and begged: "Father, I'm
dying of thirst, forgive me, and give me only a drop of water". The Baikal cried
furiously: "I can give you only my tears!" For thousand years Angara in Yenisei
by water - tear flows, and gray-haired lonely Baikal became gloomy and terrible.
The rock thrown by the Baikal after his daughter people called the Shaman stone.
People used to bring great sacrifice to the Baikal in that place. They used to
say: "The Baikal will get furious, will tear off the Shaman stone, the water
will flood and extinguish the whole Earth. "This is what the legend says.
At the mouth the Angara is about 1 km broad. Its maximum depth is about 2 m. In
the middle of it is the Shaman stone, it represents one of the ledges of the
Shaman rapids, the rocky basis of the Primorsky chain which once connected the
opposite banks of the river. The river valley in this place is young. The Evenks
call this river "Angara", the Buryats -"Angar-har", "Angargoi", "Anga" which
means "break", "passage", "crevice", the direct meaning is "open mouth." In
winter the source seems unusual. It has warmer deep waters, their temperature
reaches about 4 degrees, they join the Angara and impede the formation of ice.
The river glides during the whole winter, envel-opping the surroundings with
clouds of fog. Every morning about 10 thousand waterfowls flow down here and sat
on the open wormwood which is almost 12 km long. Among them - golden eyes,
krohali, lutki, moryanki, hohlataya chernet.
They spend the whole day long on the
source, looking for feed, and in the evening they flow away to the snowy
expanses of the Baikal.
Much is written about the Baikal, many interesting films are made, there are a
lot of legends about the Baikal, but still it's worth seeing it once with your
own eyes, breathing in its pure air, drinking its icy cold water, admiring its
incomparable rises and sets... and you will never forget this primordial beauty,
and surprising harmony of lake Baikal. We envy those who are only going to
experience all this.
The text: a magazine " Tourist
Buryatiya "
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